This pedal is the ultimate version of the Rat. The Rat is one of the most famous distortion pedals of all-time, and to me it captures the classic sounds of the '80s and '90s post-punk- and grunge eras.

The controls are pretty much the same as the Rat, but my pedal has a 3-way clipping switch: The left position provides asymmetrical silicon clipping provided by three 1n914 diodes; the middle position has no clipping; and the right position is symmetrical, with two red LEDs.

The silicon clipping has a softer, warmer clip; the red LEDs have a more hard-rock clipping; and, interestingly, the no-clipping option still provides distortion. This is because the LM308 op-amp is being taxed to the extremes and still clips the signal some, thereby providing distortion, although it's really open distortion with lots of clarity.

The PCBs for this project are available from madbean as the Slow Loris PCB.

I painted the pedal using Testor's one-coat lacquer in fiery orange. I used Lazertran laser decal stock, and I clear coated it using Minwax Polyacrylic high-gloss lacquer.

The knobs are Davie's 1510 black knobs, and I used a water clear yellow LED.